Social Media Is As Harmful For Kids As TV Was In The 90s, Finds Study
This is according to researchers from the University of Oxford which looked at three large surveys involving a total of 400,000 youngsters living in the UK and the US.
Today most parents try their hardest to keep their kids away from social media, just like how parents from the 90s tried to stop kids from spending hours in front of the TV.
And now, a new study shows that both social media and TV have been equally harmful to a kid¡¯s mental health.
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This is according to researchers from the University of Oxford which looked at three large surveys involving a total of 400,000 youngsters living in the UK and the US who reported on their personal use of technology and the kind of mental health issues they¡¯re experiencing.
Looking at the large data set, researchers were hunting for links between technology and mental health problems and if they have spiked over time. For this, they modelled four different mental health outcomes against three forms of technology use across three large data sets.
From these data sets, they found one clinically relevant self-reported mental health outcome -- depression -- for which the links to the technology outcome very negative over time. But researchers found that a similar decline was seen in both television and social media.
According to Dr Vuorre, lead author of the study, there is no specific link between the use of technology and mental health issues. Neither does it show that technology becomes more harmful for mental health over time.
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Vuorre said, ¡°We did find some limited associations between social media use and emotional problems, for instance, but it is hard to know why they are associated. It could be a number of factors (perhaps people with problems spend more time on social media seeking peer support?). Furthermore, there was very little evidence to suggest those associations have increased over time.¡±
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According to Vuorre, technology engagement had become less strongly associated with depression in the last ten years, However, social media use has been more strongly linked with emotional problems.¡±
¡°The argument that fast-paced changes to social media platforms and devices have made them more harmful for adolescent mental health in the past decade is, therefore, not strongly supported by current data either. We need more transparent research collaborations between independent researchers and technology companies. Before we do, we are generally in the dark,¡± Vuorre concluded.
